Cool Editorial Staff

Science’s Signals – Week 5

Science’s Signals is a weekly selection. It contains some of the insights found during our desk research. Signals we use in our continuous trend research, combined with the examples from our network and the results of the International Cool City Hunt research.

This week’s covered topics are all categorized in our Mentality Trends and Decade Influencers. We write about Cool Compassion, Anger, Distrust & Cynicism, Globalization, Virtuality & Involvement, Tender Urbanity and much more. With Signals from the Financial Times, the Guardian, New York Times, Mocoloco, Treehugger and Wired amongst others.

It is not the first time we write about Coca-Cola and the companies’ continuous search for brand loyalty. They’ve tried to fight obesity, they’ve tried to empower Cool Compassionwith their Let’s Go Crazy campaign. In this week’s Financial Times we read about the court fight between the state of New York and the food and beverages giant. As NY mayor Bloomberg tells us:

“I just spent $600 of my own money to try to stop the scourge of tobacco. I’m looking for another cause.”

Meanwhile hundreds of people berated Coke on Youtube, and public health advocates cried hypocrisy. Many wonder why Coke had not included any of the millions of obese Americans in the ad. Such a backlash is uncommon for the iconic brand, accused of selling ‘liquid candy’.

We hate to report it, but it is Anger, Distrust & Cynicismall over again this week. In the Guardian we read that the British government is seriously considering to launch a negative campaign to put potential immigrants off to move to Britain. The newspaper asked its readers to join the campaign, with hilarious posters as a result. In Berlin, activist are ‘gamificating’ their way to a no-surveillance-society. They destroy CCTV cameras and receive bonus point for the most innovative way of destruction. Camover!

Globalization comes in many shapes and sizes. We see Chinese expansion in all sorts of ways and in the NY Times we read that the newspaper itself has become a target for Chinese hackers. No coincidence according to the Times, because they’ve published investigative reports about relatives of China’s prime minister Wen Jiabao who seemingly made billions with business deals.

One of the leading thinkers about globalization and the ‘Flat World’, NYT’s columnist Thomas Friedman, writes about The Great Inflection. We’ve become hyperconnected instead of just connected and we need to prepare ourselves for a life full of learning and adapting. Which will lead to more individualization:

“The winners won’t just be those with more I.Q. It will also be those with more P.Q. (passion quotient) and C.Q. (curiosity quotient) to leverage all the new digital tools to not just find a job, but to invent one or reinvent one, and to not just learn but to relearn for a lifetime.”

Virtuality & Involvement
Now that we’ve discussed the serious side of trend research, let us focus on more brightness and innovation. Take Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen for instance. She managed to take Haute Couture to a next level with a 3D-printed collection at Paris fashion week. Have a look at her spectacular catwalk show Voltage:

Cool Hope
Brendan Marocco, a soldier who lost both of his arms in Iraq received a double arm six weeks ago. This week his doctors announced that his treatment is a succes. Brendan looks forward to driving a car with his new arms, so we read in the Huffington Post.

Stress Society / The SocialWebHave you ever wonderedwhat sentence in an article is the most tweetable? SavePublishing.com will help you, so we read at FastCompany. In this month’s Wired we found the Lazy Cupid’s Gift Guide, four new service that make buying bespoke Valentine’s Day presents as easy as breaking up via text. Our personal favorite? Chocomize, a tool that will help you construct a bar that only your crush could love. Our office Runner-up is Stitchtagram, a feature that lets you design a personalized pillow or tote without requiring actual decisions about the design. Got any good ideas? Try pitching it at Circle Up. Even Procter & Gamble teams up, so we read in the FT.